JULIENNE WAS ENJOYING THE race. The boats were scattered out now. Two were almost out of sight, the slower ones. “They’ll never make it, they’ve already fallen too far behind,” Dallas observed. “Looks like it’s us, the Lady Gay, the Princess of Orleans, and the Columbia Lady’s still in front.”
Darcy came up to join them. “Do you think we can catch her, Dallas?”
“Oh, sure. She’s going to have to stop for wood soon, probably at Baton Rouge. That’s when we’ll make our move.”
“What move?” Julienne asked curiously.
“We have a plan, Miss Julienne,” Dallas said jovially. “But you’re just going to have to wait and see what it is.”
Sure enough, when they reached the port of Baton Rouge, all three of the other boats slowed, then turned into the port. “Going for wood, just like you said, Dallas,” Darcy said with satisfaction.
“Aren’t we going to have to stop for wood?” Julienne asked.
“We’re going to do it a little bit different,” Dallas said. “You’ll see.”
They kept steaming along at full speed, until Baton Rouge was far behind them. Finally Dallas said under his breath, “Right on time.”
He slowed the ship down, guiding it carefully in a ruler-straight line. Darcy stood at the starboard window, watching, and he said, “You’ve got it, Dallas. You want me to go down and help?”
“No, you take the wheel. I’ll go see about it,” Dallas said, and as soon as Darcy stepped up he ran out of the pilothouse.
Julienne had been sitting on the lazy bench, and she hopped up to stare out the right window. She saw a barge, loaded with wood, that was shoved off from shore and was being poled along by a number of strong-looking men. Dallas appeared on the side of the main deck, along with the fire crew. Jesse threw the barge a line and then the crew pulled it alongside. At once the crew in the wood boat began throwing chunks of wood on board, which was grabbed and stacked by the members of the crew. The River Queen never did stop, and Dallas was back in just a few minutes. “I’ll take her back now, Darcy. You did fine. You know this part of the river is tricky, but in a couple of hours you know we’ll be past Point 142 and there’s about two hours worth of straight easy steaming, and then I’m going to let you take over. You ready for it?”
“You’re not leaving me alone, are you?” he asked anxiously.
“’Course not. But I am going to need to sit down on that nice fat new lazy bench and rest and eat something.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Darcy said doubtfully.
“Darcy, I would never let you touch that wheel if I wasn’t sure of you,” he said quietly.
Darcy looked satisfied. “I’m going down to the engine room, see how everything’s going. I’ll be back about eight o’clock.”
After he left Julienne said, “That was a neat trick, with the wood barge, Captain Dallas.”
“That was my secret,” Dallas said with a grin. “What Rev and Jesse did was set up those fellows at that point on the river. All we had to do was slow down and pull up beside them in the stream and tow ’em upstream while we unloaded the wood. Never had to stop, and now we’ve got enough wood to get us all the way to Natchez. It’ll take the Columbia a couple of hours to load up enough wood for that monster. And that, Miss Ashby, is how we’re going to win this race.”
DARCY CAME UP AT eight, and Dallas gave him the wheel. Robbie brought up a tray, and he and Julienne sat on the lazy bench and ate biscuits and bacon and drank hot tea. When they finished, Dallas laid his head back on the bench and closed his eyes. He and Julienne were holding hands and she sat contentedly in the dark wheelhouse, watching him sleep.
Once she asked quietly, “Darcy, are you nervous?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, then he answered in a very low voice so as not to disturb Dallas, “I started to make a joke like I always do. But right now I don’t feel like joking. I’m not nervous, not at all. I think maybe it’s partly because Dallas believes in me, and partly because I asked Rev to pray for me before I came up here. Now, Jules, don’t go thinking I’m going to get all crazy like you and Rev and now Dallas. I just figured it couldn’t hurt.”
“Okay,” she said solemnly. “I won’t go thinking you’re going to get all crazy.” She looked back at Dallas and saw a small smile steal across his lips.
After about an hour and a half, Dallas took over again. Darcy nodded to him in a businesslike way after handing the wheel over to him and left the pilothouse. Julienne went down to the galley, made a pot of strong coffee, and took it up to the pilothouse. She stood by Dallas and held his cup. Every once in a while he’d grab it and take a quick sip. He never looked away from the river.
When he finished, Julienne said, “I think I’ll just lie down on the lazy bench for awhile and rest, Dallas.”
“Sure you don’t want to go to your stateroom and take a good nap?”
“No, I’d rather stay here,” she answered.
“Good,” he said quietly. “I’m glad.”
She had no more than laid down when she heard a loud WHANG and then the engine started sounding ker-THUNK, ker-THUNK, ker-THUNK! She jumped up, and Dallas ordered, “Go to the speaking tube, and shout down there and ask what’s happening. She’s pulling to one side, I can’t let go for even a minute.”
Frantically Julienne ran to the big tube, rang the bell stridently, and yelled, “Ring? What’s happened?”
It was a few seconds before Ring’s voice echoed up through the tube. “Rev says we threw the reach rod. He’s working on it now.”
Even before Dallas could speak, Julienne asked, “Can he fix it?”
They heard Ring’s garbled voice as he stepped away from the tube. Then he answered, “Yeah, he’s got a spare. But we’re gonna have to stop, Dallas. Rev says if we keep going we’ll kick out the pitman arm.”
“That’s bad, isn’t it,” Julienne said.
“Yeah, that would stop us dead in the water,” Dallas answered shortly. He was fighting the wheel, standing on a port-side spoke, for the Queen was hitching over to the starboard side. She was slowing, though. “Hang the bells,” he grunted. “Yell down there and tell Ring to shut her down so we’ll just slow to a stop.”
But before Julienne could relay the instructions Ring shouted up, “We’re shutting her down, Dallas. Rev says we have to. Should be drifting to a full stop in just a few minutes.”
“If I can keep her from grounding out,” he said. He was pushing the wheel with all his strength and putting his full weight on one foot on the spoke. Julienne came and climbed up onto the wheel, standing on the spoke right above the one his foot was on. Very slowly the Queen drifted away from the dangerously near starboard shore. It seemed like a very long time to Julienne, but actually it was less than a minute that they were out in the middle of the river again. “Step off,” Dallas said tersely, and she jumped off the wheel. He managed to do a slight correction, the wheel seeming to turn more easily in his hand. Darcy came running in, and Dallas said, “Kingpin’s up. Hold her steady.” Then he ran out of the pilothouse.
As the Queen wallowed powerless in the water, Darcy kept one hand on the wheel, merely correcting the slight play. The kingpin, the one wrapped in stout leather twine, was pointing straight up, which meant that the rudder was perfectly straight.
Julienne asked, “What happened, Darcy?”
He shrugged, “I don’t know, Jules. I was down there in the engine room. I heard what you heard. We threw some rod, and it got everything out of whack.”
“Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take Rev to fix it?” she asked anxiously.
“Not a clue. But I know this: Rev’s probably one of the best engineers on the river, and Dallas Bronte is almost as good. Between the two of them, they’ll get it fixed as soon as is humanly possible.”
“Dall
as? An engineer? I didn’t know that.”
“He doesn’t talk about it much. Rev told me, that’s the only way I know. I guess Dallas likes piloting so much that he’d hate to be an engineer. But Dallas Bronte is a real smart man, Jules. You did know that, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” she said firmly. “I do know that.”
They decided not to go down to the engine room, because they knew they would only be in the way. They stood there together, silent and worrying. Then ahead they saw a faint glow and realized it was a light behind them. They looked back, and they saw the sky-high four-decker Columbia Lady, every light on the boat lit, speeding towards them. As they watched, she pulled close to the River Queen, much too close for safety. But apparently it was just so Lyle Dennison could step out of the pilothouse, stand on the hurricane deck, and shout to the River Queen a full two stories beneath him. “You be careful with her, Julienne! You’re never going to beat me now, so she’s my ship!”
“Idiot,” Darcy said with disgust. “No river man ever calls a steamer a ‘ship.’ It’s like telling someone that your horse is a moose. Two different things, and only morons don’t know the difference.”
“I wonder if he’s right, though,” Julienne said worriedly. “We’re about four hours out of Natchez, right?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, Jules,” Darcy said confidently. “After all, we know that Rev is praying hard for that reach rod right now.”
It was about an hour before they could tell that the firemen were building up the steam again. A few minutes later Dallas came back into the wheelhouse. “Thank the Lord for Rev and his obsession with having an extra everything, right down to the last screw. We’re going to get the Queen back in the race right now.” The engines started up, with the old familiar rhythmic chunk, chunk, chunk sound.
Dallas took the wheel and said to Darcy, “I just told Jesse to give her everything she’s got, and when Rev’s ready he’s going to holler up at me.”
“Everything she’s got,” Darcy repeated. “What does that mean?”
“Cap the safety valve and use as little water as possible.”
Darcy asked hesitantly, “Yeah, that’s gonna give us speed, and quickly, but isn’t that how boilers blow up?”
“Sometimes,” Dallas answered tightly. “I’m praying, Rev’s praying, Jesse’s praying, Julienne, you pray. Might not be a bad time for you to start, Darcy.”
“Don’t think so,” he said in his old breezy voice. “I’m just going to go down and say ‘me, too’ to everything Rev says.” He walked out.
Dallas grinned. “He’s gonna pray. Thank the Lord, we’re rolling already!” The River Queen had started to move, and she was already picking up speed within the first few revolutions of her paddle wheel.
Julienne wondered how Dallas could smile. She was so deathly worried now that they would lose the race, and all of her old terrible fears came rushing back. “You know that the Columbia Lady passed us about an hour ago,” she said dispiritedly.
“Yeah, I know. Jesse went out on deck to see her, and he heard what Dennison yelled at you.” He couldn’t turn to look at her, but he hesitated a minute as if he were searching her face. “Julienne, you’re not scared, are you?”
“Yes, I am. Aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not scared. God isn’t the author of fear, He’s our Comforter. Just trust in Him, Julienne. Don’t trust in the River Queen, or Rev’s prayers, or even me. Just trust Him, and no matter what happens, you’re going to be blessed, because you’re a child of the King.”
JESSE WAS PILING ON the steam, even Julienne could tell. They seemed to be flying instead of steaming with a paddle wheel. The acrid smell from the rich pine invaded the pilothouse.
Once Ring called up and said, “Captain, the boilers are getting red. Jesse’s worried.”
“Tell Jesse I trust him. He knows those boilers like Rev knows that engine. Tell him to keep adding water, a little at a time. He’ll know how much and when.”
It was only thirty minutes after this that Dallas suddenly exclaimed, “Look, Julienne, there’s the Columbia Lady. We’ve got a chance.”
“How far to Natchez?”
“Just a couple of hours. I think we can beat her.” As they drew slowly nearer to the big steamer, Dallas grunted, “She’s making black smoke.”
“What does that mean?” Julienne asked.
“It means,” Dallas answered, “that they’re putting in rich pine just like we are. I’d bet that Dennison is capping his safety valve too.”
They followed her doggedly, and sometimes Julienne thought they were gaining on her, and sometimes she thought they were falling farther behind. The River Queen seemed to be straining, like a live thing. The heat from the boiler room was heating up even the pilothouse, two decks up. Ring’s gravelly voice sounded up the tube again. “Dallas, Jesse says this is it. She’s running hot as the nether regions.”
“Ask him can he keep it up for just about another hour,” Dallas ordered Julienne.
“Dallas wants another hour,” Julienne yelled, “and I do too. And so do you.”
“I think we’re both gonna blow our fool selfs up,” Ring said grumpily but faintly as he turned away from the speaking tube.
Julienne stared at the Columbia Lady so hard her eyes and temples started to hurt. Dallas, of course, kept his sharp gaze straight ahead always. Finally Julienne whispered, “We’re gaining on her, aren’t we, Dallas? We are, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, Julienne, we are. I really think that if Jesse and Rev can keep it up, we’ll nose in front of her before we get to Natchez,” he said firmly.
Just ahead was a sharp bend in the river, and when the Columbia Lady reached it she completely disappeared. Tensely they searched the darkness ahead.
In about two minutes they saw what seemed to be a white cloud rising from the water, immediately followed by a loud explosion that shook the River Queen.
“Oh, no, no,” Julienne said faintly.
“Her boilers burst for sure,” Dallas said grimly. He reached up and rang the big bell, pulling the cord hard, so the continual deep gongs sounded urgent.
Immediately Ring shouted up, “What is it, Dallas?”
Julienne answered, “The Columbia Lady’s boilers burst, Dallas is pretty sure. He says full steam ahead until you hear the backing bell, then pull her up hard. Get some fire buckets and the fire crew ready!”
Dallas guided the Queen around the bend, and Julienne gasped. The beautiful steamer’s nose was down, her pilothouse and the front half of her decks blown to splinters. She was on fire, and people were jumping overboard. Almost without thinking Julienne prayed, Thank You, Lord, that it’s not wintertime. She remembered the icy cold down to her bones in that water the night she and Dallas had wrecked.
Dallas rang the backing bell, and at once they felt the paddle wheels stop, then groaning, start turning in reverse to stop the Queen. Dallas was busy maneuvering the wheel, so Julienne said, “I’m going on down to the main deck, Dallas.”
“Go on. Be careful. Send Darcy up here, I can swim better than him.”
“I will.” She ran down the stairs and found Darcy, already sitting down on the deck and taking off his boots. “Go up and take the wheel, Darcy. Dallas is a strong swimmer, he’ll be able to help more than you will.”
Rebellion crossed his face, but then he pulled his boot back on and ran up the stairs.
The next few hours were a nightmare. Some of the passengers and crew had been blown into the river, killed instantly by the explosion. Others were drowning in the water. Dallas, Rev, Jesse, and Ring jumped in again and again, dragging people to the River Queen. Julienne and Caesar and Libby worked on the deck, helping to bring them up, while Roseann, Leah, and Robbie, took them into the now-empty ballroom, laid them down, and covered them with whatever they could
find: sheets, tablecloths, towels, stored canvas pieces, their own bedlinens.
Julienne looked up and saw that Lyle Dennison had swum to the Queen by himself, and Caesar and Libby were helping to haul him aboard. She had thought that Lyle had been killed, because the pilothouse was nothing but a burning pile of splintered wood. But then she realized that Lyle wouldn’t have stayed in the wheelhouse for long. He must have been in some other part of the boat. Julienne forgot all of her bitterness and anger toward him at that moment. She was glad he hadn’t been killed.
“I’m all right, I don’t need any help,” he was saying irritably to Caesar and Libby. “Unless you can find me a drink.”
“They’re passing out brandy in the ballroom,” Caesar said kindly.
Dallas, who was between dives to look for survivors, walked up to face him squarely.
Dennison stared at him, then muttered, “Well, you’ve won, Bronte.”
“Not the way I wanted to. I’m sorry you lost the Columbia Lady, Dennison. I truly am.”
“So am I. And the River Queen. But regardless of how it happened, you beat me, Bronte. And I can take my beatings like a man.” He stuck out his hand.
Dallas shook it. “Takes a big man to lose gracefully. I wish you well, Dennison.”
He nodded with a sort of dignity. Dallas turned and started searching the water for more survivors.
As Lyle walked past Julienne he said quietly, “Congratulations, Miss Ashby.”
“Thank you, Lyle,” she said warmly.
He went in the ballroom and, being very familiar with the River Queen, walked between the people lying on the floor straight back to what he had planned to be the gentlemen’s salon. Already there was a fully-stocked bar, locked away in a small storage closet. He doubted that the Ashbys even knew of it. He pulled out an expensive bottle of brandy and took a long gurgling swig of it. “So I lost the Columbia Lady and the Queen,” he murmured to himself, “and I lost the girl. Too bad for me. I can build more boats. But I don’t think I’ll ever get another girl like her.”
River Queen Page 29
